Weekend Slowdown: busting the barrel roll meme for the sake of dogfighting

Nope, this isn’t just a dumb Weekend Slowdown article because I’m bored. Given that Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and Warhawk are on their takeoff runs, we’re looking at the future of air combat over online consoles. Personally, it would be nice to face professional virtual combat pilots eager to learn from their victories and losses, and not turkeys lining up to be shot.

Barrel rolls are not just a dumb meme perpetrated by teh internetz. It’s not meant to be a dumb joke to be spammed during Ace Combat online multiplayer. Even before Fox was in diapers, the barrel roll is a basic helical acrobatic maneuver used to evaluate a pilot’s coordination, orientation, and feel for his mount. It is the basis of offensive and defensive dogfighting maneuvers pilots are taught to recognize. Use it… or lose it.

How do you do a barrel roll in the first place? No, Peppy, (censored), you do not press Z or R twice (censored). Never mind, let the United States Navy (circa 1950s) teach all the wannabe pilots out there how to do an actual, quality barrel roll:

More instructional material at the Full Article, particularly the useful material.

Nope, this isn’t just a dumb Weekend Slowdown article because I’m bored. Given that Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and Warhawk are on their takeoff runs, we’re looking at the future of air combat over online consoles. Personally, it would be nice to face professional virtual combat pilots eager to learn from their victories and losses, and not turkeys lining up to be shot.

Barrel rolls are not just a dumb meme perpetrated by teh internetz. It’s not meant to be a dumb joke to be spammed during Ace Combat online multiplayer. Even before Fox was in diapers, the barrel roll is a basic helical acrobatic maneuver used to evaluate a pilot’s coordination, orientation, and feel for his mount. It is the basis of offensive and defensive dogfighting maneuvers pilots are taught to recognize. Use it… or lose it.

How do you do a barrel roll in the first place? No, Peppy, (censored), you do not press Z or R twice (censored). Never mind, let the United States Navy (circa 1950s) teach all the wannabe pilots out there how to do an actual, quality barrel roll:

Okay, now the driving safety instructional video is over, what the heck is the barrel roll’s utility in dogfighting? Thank you, air combat geeks of teh internetz, for being available for research purposes and to educate the n00bs about what it means to be Top Gun. (Diagrams and education below courtesy of CombatAircraft.com)

The High-G Barrel Roll (left pic) is a defensive maneuver used to force your pursuer (red) to overshoot, or fly past you (blue), hopefully putting you in the perfect position for a counterattack. It is however hard to pull off successfully, and the attacker can easily counter it.

By executing a barrel roll with “high G”, meaning pulling on the stick all the way, you rapidly bleed speed and pull away from the other guy’s line of attack, while setting up your counterattack. The best time to use the high-G barrel roll is at a “high overtake, high angle-off situation”: the bad guy’s coming at you too fast, or more from the side than behind you. Recognize these signs, and you can flummox the poor sod back to Mother Earth.

The Barrel Roll Attack (above-right pic), meanwhile, is used to prevent you (blue), from overshooting/flying past the bad guy (red) who hits the brakes or makes a sudden turn to one side. Instead of instinctively turning with him, you break away from him and begin executing the barrel roll. Except, instead of ending the maneuver in the same flight path as before, you adjust and pull to slide behind the poor sod who will hopefully rediscover gravity when you’re through.

Something for those new to air combat to chew on. Let’s see if they actually start doing further research before their first sortie over Xbox Live or PlayStation Network, and truly become ace fighter pilots. Pilots, time for those egos to write checks your body can cash.

Otherwise, and we quote a World of Warcraft machinima, if you say “Do a barrel roll” over Xbox Live or PSN, I will cut you.